Chesterfield County recycles - but at a cost
By Susan Nienow CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Reverend David Gilliam disposes of county residents' castoffs each week through Chesterfield's curbside recycling program. Sometimes his route includes more than 500 stops a day.

The county spends more than $135,000 a month for biweekly curbside recycling - whether Chesterfield households use the service or not. It costs Chesterfield $1.53 per month for each of the 88,492 households that are eligible for the county's recycling program.

But not all eligible households in Chesterfield recycle, according to Bernie Harris of Central Virginia Waste Management Authority (CVWMA). Some neighborhoods have 80 percent participation and others just 20 or 30 percent.

However, even though it costs the county up front, Charles Dane, assistant director of general services, says the recycling program moves the county forward on its "goal of being a protector of the environment. The citizens deserve this service [and] it preserves landfill space."

Curbside recycling allows residents to set out their paper products, aluminum, plastic and glass in an 18-gallon bin provided by the county for pickup.

The service is not available to apartment dwellers, new communities (until there are enough households to warrant adding them to a route) or sparsely populated areas.

CVWMA, the organization that manages the curbside recycling program for Chesterfield and 12 other nearby localities, was established in 1991 after the state government mandated that localities recycle at least 25 percent of their solid waste.

The other localities include Richmond, Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Ashland, and New Kent, Powhatan, Henrico, Goochland, Hanover, Prince George and Charles City counties.

More than 12,000 tons of recyclables were collected in 2005 through the county's curbside program.

About 70 percent of recyclable material is fiber such as cardboard and newspapers, 20 percent is glass, two percent is aluminum, two percent is steel and four percent is plastic.

The localities in CVWMA had a 45.9 percent recycling rate for 2005, but only six or seven percent came from curbside recycling, explained Harris. The rest comes from industry and other sources in each locality.

Tidewater Fibre Corporation has a contract with CVWMA to pick up, separate and ship off the recyclables to individual companies that use them, explained Tidewater Fibre Corporation Operations Manager Bob Adler. The company receives $1.38 of the $1.53 monthly household fee that the county pays.

Another eight cents is spent to publicize the program and to produce a calendar to remind residents when to put their recyclables out at the curb, and $.065 goes to the call center. (Residents can call 748-1297 to see if they live in a service area or to have a bin delivered.) Each 18-gallon bin costs the county $9.

The biggest problem with recycling is knowing what materials are recyclable. Two to three percent of the materials collected can't be used such as the pizza left in the delivery boxes, said Harris.

Some plastics aren't recyclable. "If you can fit your hand in the plastic bottle, it is not a recyclable item," said Adler.

Other recycling efforts

The northern area transfer station, located at 3200 Warbro Road, and the southern one at 6700 Landfill Drive off Ironbridge Road, accept glass, aluminum, fiber and plastics for those residents who do not have curbside service such as apartment dwellers, as well as others who do not use the curbside service. The cost to the county for the transfer station

recycling service is about $20,000 each year, indicated Dane. The cost of accepting and processing tires, metal and wood waste is about $10,000. Residents are charged a small fee to leave tires at the transfer station.